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Purpose of and Need for Action utilize, consistently with the provisions of the Colorado River Compact, the apportionments made to and among them in the Colorado River Compact and the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact, respectively, providing for the reclamation of and and semiarid land, for the control of floods, and for the generation of hydroelectric power, as an incident of the foregoing purposes.. . Since the dam was completed prior to enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), no EIS was filed regarding construction or operation of Glen Canyon Dam. The "Law of the River"-a collection of Federal and State statutes, compacts, court decisions and decrees, Federal contracts, a treaty with Mexico, and formally determined long-range operating criteria-define the operation and management of the Colorado River. The powerplant at Glen Canyon Dam has been used primarily for generating power during high demand periods (peaking power). The daily fluctuating releases associated with peaking power operations have caused concern among Federal, State, and Tribal resource management agencies; fishing and rafting interests; and environmental groups concerned about detrimental effects on downstream cultural resources, vegetation, wildlife, and other river resources. These concerns were expressed most forcefully by the public during two Reclamation studies on possible increases in peaking power generation at Glen Canyon Dam. Although an uprate and rewind of powerplant generators was completed in 1987, Reclamation agreed not to use the increased generating capacity until completing a more comprehensive study of impacts from historic and current dam operations. Maximum releases have been limited to 31,500 cubic feet per second (cfs) instead of the potential 33,200 cfs that resulted from the uprate and rewind. Glen Canyon Environmental Studies In December 1982, Reclamation initiated the multiagency Glen Canyon Environmental Studies (GCES) to respond to the concerns of Federal, State, and Tribal agencies and the public. GCES Phase I was completed in 1988. In June 1988, GCES Phase II was initiated to gather additional data on specific operational elements. Agencies and individuals cooper- ating in the studies include Federal and State resource agencies, Indian Tribes, private consultants, universities, and river guides. CRSP power revenues have funded these studies, which form the basis for the impact assessment presented in the EIS. 2 Glen Canyon Dam EIS Summary